Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has revealed that there is next to no chance that a certain short-haul service will return.
The budget airline CEO explained in a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday that Cork-Dublin flights will not be revived, despite speculation to the contrary.
O'Leary, one of Ireland’s wealthiest businessmen, said that there is one quite obvious reason that a direct flight linking two of Ireland's main cities wouldn’t work - there is a motorway now.
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Speaking at the press conference, the 62-year-old airline boss said: "I don’t think Cork-Dublin flights will return.
"The motorway journeys are now less than two hours, the train services are less than two hours."
On Tuesday, Kenny Jacobs, the chief executive of daa, was reported to have speculated that the regular service which was previously flown by both Ryanair and Aer Lingus may be returning imminently.
However, O'Leary said that his views were based on direct experience, adding: "We were the main airline operating Cork-Dublin flights.
"We had three flights a day with a 97 per cent load factor. Once they finished the motorway, the load factor went from 97 per cent to 23 per cent."
Mr O'Leary continued to explain that from a climate change perspective, he wouldn’t have concerns about short-haul flights in Ireland.
He said: "They’re much less efficient, but Ireland is a very small island and there’s very few domestic flights.
"We operate one domestic from Kerry to Dublin, where the road journey is five hours. That’s now taking place on a green, clean aircraft, so, I think that’s acceptable.
"But in reality, if you have a small country like Ireland with a very important, good motorway network, the market determines that there’s no market for short-haul flights."
The Cork-Dublin flight regularly flew before it ended in 2011 when Ryanair stopped the route, saying it struggled to make it financially viable.
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